Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms 'Meet the Rees-Moggs'

Well said John.
We do seem to live in a very jealous society in the UK. We seem hell bent on dragging people down who have done well or are striving to improve themselves....🤷🏻‍♂️

The current government seem to be doing a good job though......... unless you're elderly, a farmer, have children at private school, have a pension, a university student, an employer, a small business, pay council tax, run a motor vehicle.......😆

We have some very moneyed and titled folk that have chosen to reside down here or inherited a "pile" and the majority are well respected and embraced by the village as they appreciate their good fortune. In most cases they contribute of their time and finance the vital projects that help others less fortunate in a very light handed manner as becomes real human beings.

I have never come across any resentment whatsoever towards any of them, we are fortunate to know them as friends and neighbours.

Back on thread I wouldn't urinate on RM if he was on fire....

My wife is a WASPI warrior ! Seen our MP at the H of P for tea and talk and been on a couple of protests.
Strange how they were soo very supportive of the campaign in opposition and now silent virtually - you can add that to the list
John - I have no issue with anything you said above. Probably agree and support. Ran my own SMEs for 30 years. I just do not like it when someone has perhaps a currently not in favour position, left or right ( & who decides those labels !?) and gets pilloried . That is why I like “smart’ politicians of any colour who sit, listen, don’t interject, and then respond well, to the point and clearly.
We seem to notice those of a military background, do not um, hesitate and seem clear of thought and decision.
Nobody answers a question , comedy reflects society , remember Sir Humphrey? Most politicians drive us mad.
We sometimes don’t listen to the news for a week, it’s therapeutic .
Best MM
PS Whatever happened to the wonderful Miners Convalescent Home near Bispham . Things of the past .
And how is Whams Last Christmas 40 years old .? I must be 100 then . . Learnt to ski in Saas Fee but only had Jeans and a jacket - stupid

My wife is a WASPI warrior ! Seen our MP at the H of P for tea and talk and been on a couple of protests.
Strange how they were soo very supportive of the campaign in opposition and now silent virtually - you can add that to the list
John - I have no issue with anything you said above. Probably agree and support. Ran my own SMEs for 30 years. I just do not like it when someone has perhaps a currently not in favour position, left or right ( & who decides those labels !?) and gets pilloried . That is why I like “smart’ politicians of any colour who sit, listen, don’t interject, and then respond well, to the point and clearly.
We seem to notice those of a military background, do not um, hesitate and seem clear of thought and decision.
Nobody answers a question , comedy reflects society , remember Sir Humphrey? Most politicians drive me mad.
We sometimes don’t listen to the news for a week, it’s therapeutic .
Best MM
PS Whatever happened to the wonderful Miners Convalescent Home near Bispham . Things of the past .
And how is Whams Last Christmas 40 years old !. Learnt to ski in Saas Fe but only had Jeans and a jacket - stupid

Good luck to her with that, we were lucky and just made the good dates by days to get the better pension.

Heather's I paid 7k in to fill up her missing years for the full pension, she gets the full pension but mine is reduced as I have three other ex final salary ones running - nobody warns you before hand though

She was a fulltime Mum to our three as I worked overseas a lot.

Probably along with the Imperial Hotel ,the Miners Convalescent Home are some of the most outstandingly beautiful buildings in Blackpool. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miners%27_Convalescent_Home,_Blackpool.

It's still there, two further modern apartment buildings were built in the grounds unfortunately not in the same style of the main building which was converted into apartments in 2005. A landmark building, reflecting the former wealth of local coal mining industry and its unions, taking advantage of the convalescing air of the Fylde Coast for recovering miners.

I'm glad its still there, we have lost a lot of important landmark buildings in the area eg the Majestic Hotel in St Annes, rather than repurposed sadly knocked down.

Good job you weren't around during the Brexit debate and other topics, I certainly got pilloried from certain quarters, but we are all grown up and can still dress ourselves and hopefully broad enough shoulders. I've often turned the other cheek, but it sometimes can grate. so a bit of self indulgence from time to time can level the score, not that one is counting. I was bought up in a world of questioning everything and never taking anything at face value, which causes me to read more widely at both ends of the political spectrum, to find the truth (if any) to inform my own opinion. On certain things I'm more leaning to the left on others to the right. But I hope I can be tolerant enough of other points of differing views.

Just dislike political party finger pointing prefacing a debate, when in general all political parties have the their relative strengths and weaknesses and supporting cohorts in society. For example when people point out the Conservatives support business and therefore somehow everything they do is tainted because they are sponsored and financed by business, but then conveniently forget that Labour too is sponsored and supported by the Unions and their agenda but somehow that's ok.......

Coming back to the topic in hand I would enjoy talking to RM, even having a meal with him, I've no axe to grind. Like many other people of opposing views to myself I could still engage with them, and probably not be surprised as to how much common ground we may share /find, its often the approaches to the solution where people differ.

Yes, NIC and their implications are not always widely publicised, and its often too late to correct it when you do find out, usually later in your career as your look more closely at retirement funding. I always made sure that I was paid from the UK when working abroad, so paid all the NIC contributions, but it is possible to pay NIC whilst abroad,

My wife has just 5 weeks short of the minimum 10 years Irish contributions to get a Irish pension and as she has all the necessary 35 years qualifying for the UK pension, her near 10 years Irish contributions wont help. She misses the WASPI cut-off date by 3 months. As in all things in life, there has to be a cut-off point and inevitably it may create unfairness on those just the other side of it.

I always was paid in England whilst overseas and continued the NI payments naturally, whilst we worked in Germany the company also paid humongous amounts into the German health insurance and pension funds. When my wife fell pregnant she was treated like Royalty the service she received was par excellence. My company also paid the house rental for us so it was a lucrative two years. A trip to Hamburg Consulate to register No1 daughter was a nice experience and warranted a walk around The Alster 😎.

The State Pension timing is a cruel but fair lottery and the line has to be drawn somewhere and I wish MM and his wife luck.

TBM - you’re right - prediction of Brexit being a sh*t show were correct - UK sadly heading for a recession and greater unemployment is a direct result of ditching free access to your largest market and then whining about the extra regulations of access to it - an exercise in shooting oneself in the foot!!!!!!

Strange that we are exporting more into the EU now than before Brexit, its had a greater impact on our imports from the EU they were down last time I looked. It's also strange that our financial and service industry has grown as we have developed UK specific trade agreements with the ROW as opposed to EU trade agreements that basically focused on agriculture, manufacturing and not services. We have recently signed an agreement with the 7th US state, that is Texas the combined 7 US states we have signed up so far GDP exceeds that of the EU, and that doesn't include the advantages of the Pacific Rim agreement starts to have an effect and more deals are coming,

The EU was a success story when it remained an economic block, never had a problem with that .If you look back a bit further you will see a trend of the UK exports to the EU and the UK reliance on EU markets has been gradually falling for decades from a high of about 60% of our exports to the EU (from memory) way before Brexit.